Mets Are Called Out; Cards Head to World Series

Yadier Molina singling in the second inning. He hit a game-winning two-run homer in the ninth to send the Cardinals to the World Series.Credit
Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

The Mets’ glorious swath through the National League ended abruptly last night, done in by the St. Louis Cardinals and their own underperforming lineup.

Yadier Molina slammed a two-run, tie-breaking homer off Aaron Heilman with one out in the ninth inning, lifting the Cardinals to a 3-1 victory in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series and a berth in the World Series in front of a dejected crowd of 56,357 at Shea Stadium.

The Cardinals will play the Detroit Tigers tomorrow night in Game 1 of the World Series.

The Mets thought that Detroit would be their destination, but in an October that began with both New York teams alive in the playoffs and fans dreaming of a reprise of their 2000 Subway Series, neither team will be playing for a championship. Both teams were done in by a failure to hit in the clutch, and now fans all over the city have four long months ahead.

The Mets’ offense, so potent during the regular season, was silenced for much of the series. They mustered only two hits through eight innings against Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan, the N.L.C.S. most valuable player, and reliever Randy Flores, before mounting a brief rally in the ninth.

But Wainwright struck out Beltrán on three pitches, the last a wicked curveball, to cap a most improbable postseason run.

“They had all the right guys up, and we got them out,” Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa said.

The Cardinals nearly lost an eight-and-a-half-game lead in the N.L. Central, backing into the playoffs with an 83-78 record, the worst among the eight playoff teams. But, buoyed by an unlikely hitting star in Molina, who hit .216 in the regular season and .333 in the N.L.C.S., the Cardinals advanced to their second World Series in three seasons.

Heilman pitched a scoreless eighth and struck out Jim Edmonds to begin the ninth before allowing a single to Scott Rolen. Molina cranked a first-pitch changeup 370 feet over the left-field wall, setting off a wild celebration in the dugout.

“Sometimes you feel like you made a mistake, and it comes back to hurt you,” Heilman said.

The loss was a setback in the Mets’ two-year resurgence that began with the hiring of a Hispanic general manager from Queens, Omar Minaya, and an African-American manager from Brooklyn, Willie Randolph, and aligned them with the Yankees in the city’s consciousness. The teams, naturally, tied for the best records in the major leagues, 97-65, as more than 7.5 million fans swept through the Yankee Stadium and Shea turnstiles to watch the best baseball in the country.

The Yankees’ season ended in turmoil, a first-round defeat to the Tigers, amid speculation that Manager Joe Torre would lose his job.

The Mets’ season almost carried on, almost improbably, as a depleted rotation forced Randolph sent out John Maine and Oliver Pérez, twice each, in the N.L.C.S. The Mets still had a winning record — 6-4 — in the postseason, a measure of how talented they were without two top pitchers, Orlando Hernández and Pedro Martínez.

“One thing this team learned was that, through any adversity, we can beat it,” Floyd said. “We lost two of our best pitchers and we still got here.”

On a misty night straight out of a Gothic novel, Pérez and Suppan engaged in an unexpected pitchers’ duel.

For Suppan, who fired eight scoreless innings in Game 3, it was more expected. He allowed two hits, both in the first inning, before being removed in the eighth.

Photo

Endy Chávez reached over the fence to catch Scott Rolen's fly ball in the sixth.Credit
G. Paul Burnett/The New York Times

Pérez, meanwhile, came in with the worst regular-season earned run average (6.55) of any Game 7 starter ever. But pitching on three days’ rest Pérez, like Maine did a night earlier, befuddled the Cardinals, allowing one run in six innings and striking out four.

Perez came out unintimidated and throwing hard. He blew away the second hitter, Preston Wilson, on 95- and 94-mile-an-hour pitches, and maintained his poise through his departure after six splendid innings.

The Mets did not need Pérez to be perfect, only competent, like Maine was in Game 6 Wednesday night. Like Maine, Pérez encountered his share of tenuous situations but allowed only a second-inning run on a squeeze play.

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In the fifth, he retired Wilson and Albert Pujols with two runners on base to defuse a dangerous situation. The Cardinals tried taking revenge in the sixth. After Jim Edmonds walked with one out, Randolph visited Pérez but left him in the game.

Rolen clocked the first pitch to deep left, a sure home run, the crowd figured, as it fell silent. Chávez judged the arc and, measuring his leap, jumped backwards against the fence. Chávez’s right elbow touched the top of the wall as he snared the ball before it landed in the Cardinals’ bullpen.

Edmonds was halfway toward third when Chávez caught it, landing against a sign reading, “The Strength To Be There,” and the Mets doubled him off first to end the inning.

“I’ve never seen anything like it before,” Beltrán said.

As the crowd roared, every Met on the field waited near first base to congratulate Chávez. Across the diamond, Rolen stood dumbfounded, helmet off, waiting for a teammate to bring him his glove.

He should have asked for an arm, too. With one out and Carlos Delgado on first base, Wright sent a slow roller toward third. Rolen fielded it cleanly, but his throw sailed over Pujols’s head and into the stands. Shawn Green was walked intentionally, loading the bases for Valentín, who struck out.

Chávez was on deck, and a hit would have cemented his place in Mets lore. But Chávez swung at Suppan’s first pitch and flied out to center, missing an opportunity for one of the most amazing innings in franchise history.

The Mets sailed through the regular season, holding sole possession of first place in the N.L. East since April 6, winning the division by 12 games, before injuries to Martínez and Hernández threatened to derail their postseason dreams.

They bent but never collapsed, winning their final four regular-season games and sweeping the division series against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Then, in the N.L.C.S., they encountered their greatest hardship of the season. Down two games to one in St. Louis with Pérez pitching, the Mets won Game 4. On the verge of elimination Wednesday night, the Mets relied on a rookie (Maine) to defeat a Cy Young Award winner (Chris Carpenter), and, naturally, they won that one. But last night, their pitching held up, and their offense disappeared.

“We went to the last out of the last inning of the last game, and we gave it our all,” Minaya said. “What else can you ask for?

In a downtrodden clubhouse, plastic sheets still hung draped over televisions and computers in preparation for a Champagne bath, when Fred Wilpon, the Mets’ principal owner, entered. He went directly to Heilman, grabbed his arm and thanked him before crisscrossing the room to meet with the coaching staff.

On his way out, he found Minaya in the middle of the locker room. As they hugged, Minaya told him, “The players didn’t cheat you, they didn’t cheat you.”

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